The present invention relates to monitoring baby development and, in particular, it concerns monitoring the weight of a baby over time in a baby bath development and weighing system.
In the specification and claims hereinbelow, the term “baby” refers to an infant ranging from birth up until the age of at least one year and older.
It is known that monitoring a baby's weight over time, especially during a period of the first year or two of the baby's life, is a major parameter in understanding the overall development of the baby. Typically, most hospitals weigh a newborn infant immediately after birth and usually daily until the infant is released to its home. Follow up weighing is usually performed in a clinical setting, by a doctor, nurse or other health-care professional, weighing the baby typically once a week or less frequently; in addition to performing other measurements such as measuring baby length and visually inspecting the baby. In most cases, baby weight and other measurements are recorded, along with the age of the baby when respective measurements are taken. Baby development with regard to weight increase over time is tracked against known historical tables for babies, allowing both parents and medical personnel to have a better insight into the normal development of the baby over time.
An example of prior art is McGrigor, in GB Patent no. GB2375181, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, who discloses a system for entering measurement data and information to ascertain whether or not a child is physically developing normally. The system is defined such that it consists of a means for entering measurement data and information appertaining to the object being assessed (typically a human infant or child) and a means for comparing this data and information with stored values against which a qualitative comparison can be made. Typical information may relate to one or more of age, sex and racial type of a human infant or child, while typical measurement data may include weight, height, and head circumference.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,956,175, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, Daly et al. discloses a scale including an event data discrimination and collection system for continuously monitoring a weight of an infant placed on the scale platen, which may be configured as a bed. Load cells are used to continuously monitor infant weight from the time the infant is placed on the scale platen, so that sudden apparent weight spikes sensed by the load cells but attributable to events involved in patient care may be discarded as artifact, while gradual weight changes reflective of infant physiology are accumulated by the scale controller and used to provide a current weight for the infant weighing apparatus and method for measuring mostly infants and for storing such data, including comparisons of measured vs. stored data. A continuous weighing apparatus is disclosed, which is moveable and which can be located under a bed, for example.
As opposed to occasional baby weighing, a more frequently practiced activity associated with routine baby care and hygiene is that of the baby's bathing. Most babies are bathed usually once a day, and certainly at least a number of times a week, in various baby bath configurations. An exemplary publication concerning a baby bath and bathing is UK Patent Application GB2236949 to Booth, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference. Booth discloses a baby bath of molded plastics material which includes a base, a pair of opposed side walls upstanding from the base, and a pair of opposed first and second end walls also upstanding from the base. The first end wall defines an inclined surface on which the head and body of a baby can lie, and the legs of the baby can be supported by an arched portion of the base, which provides more reliable support for a small baby. The bath may be fitted with a water temperature monitor to provide automatic monitoring of water temperature.
Mazar discloses, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/672,568, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, a safety bathtub including at least one upstanding wall; and a built-in thermometer in the wall, the thermometer including a measuring portion and a scale portion, and the thermometer being mounted such that the measuring portion is immersed in water when the bathtub has water in it, and the scale portion is out of the water when the bathtub has water in it, for continual monitoring from outside and above the bathtub.
As previously noted, baby weighing is usually performed in a clinical setting typically once a week, or less frequently, by a healthcare professional weighing the baby, employing systems similar to or such as described hereinabove. As opposed to this, baby bathing is performed rather frequently and normally takes place in the home. Baby baths are widely available for this purpose, and such baths include various configurations similar to and such as described hereinabove. Many responsible parents would prefer to be able to more closely follow the development of their baby's growth, while taking advantage of a home setting to weigh the baby. Whereas many babies experience some discomfort at being undressed, only to be weighed; most babies enjoy being bathed. Furthermore, the frequency and generally pleasant environment associated with bathing the baby offer an opportunity to obtain a relatively large number of baby weight measurements, which may subsequently be used as part of a baby development monitoring system.
There is therefore a need for an economical, reliable, and integrated system in which the baby may be bathed and simultaneously weighed, and in which weight measurement may be recorded and used as part of a baby weight development monitor over time, in a home setting as well as in other settings.